Jo McCallum is a Digital Craft Maker, Researcher, and Writer whose bold visual language draws on her experience as a wanderer. Born in Zimbabwe, raised in New Zealand and Australia, Jo has spent her adult life living in London, interwoven with adventures in Cornwall and Japan. In 2023, three of Jo’s weave sculptures were displayed in the Architecture Gallery at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London.

Exploring the interplay between living systems, craft, and futures is the cornerstone of Jo’s iterative and experimental practice. Originally trained as an architect, she holds professional qualifications in loom weaving, textile structures, welding, basketry, carpentry, foundry skills, material futures, and biofabrication. This antidisciplinary approach speaks to a love of skill-sharing and collaboration across the arts, architecture, traditional craft, digital transformation, and advanced manufacturing.

In 2016, Jo completed a five-month Arts and Humanities Council (AHRC) International Placement (IPS) fellowship at Nichibunken, Kyoto. During this immersive period, she undertook fieldwork with Japanese bamboo weavers, woodworkers, and material researchers across Kyushu, Chubu, Kansai, and Kanto. Guided by three generous makers, Jiro Yonezawa, Kenichi Otani and Takayuki Shimizu, Jo was invited into homes, workshops, and communities, to share tools, techniques, and traditions. A visit to the 2016 Nitten Exhibition in Tokyo, yielded introductions to many of the great bamboo weavers, including rising star Hajime Nakatomi, and revered makers Honma Hideaki and Tokuzo Shono, son of the first Living National Treasure in bamboo arts, Shounsai Shono.

Working with researchers at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Edinburgh College of Art, UC Berkeley, and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Jo has expanded her skills and experience to explore the intersection between physical and digital practice. Ever curious, she has trained, taught, and presented at St Antony’s College Oxford, the University of the Arts London (UAL), University College London (UCL), City Literary Institute London, Queen Mary University of London, Falmouth University (FU), Nichibunken, and the University of Queensland (UQ).

Jo’s practice is underpinned by the belief that art, craft, and systems innovation should be accessible and inclusive. As a weaver, she speaks a universal language that crosses borders and boundaries. Hence, her practice emerges from an emancipatory perspective based on principles of openness, empowerment, accountability, and reciprocity. Every work Jo makes is borne of craft and collaboration, delivering unashamedly colour-obsessed manifestations.

As a member of both the Association of Professional Futurists and the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, Jo is passionate about the role of creativity in new imaginaries and alternative practice. She is also a Healthy Materials Advocate for the Healthy Materials Lab, Parsons School of Design | The New School, New York.

Jo is also the Founder of Crafting Futures Studio, and a Co-founder of the systems making startup theother.school, in partnership with artist, researcher, and strategist, Caroline Austin.